5 Profound Insights from "The Infinite Atonement"

4) Christ overcame temptation.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Christ being tempted by Satan, but how was His temptation different or similar to the temptation we ourselves face today? Elder Callister clarifies:

“Do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting here that Jesus in any way indulged in unclean thoughts, for that would be sin, and he indulged nothing sinful. I do not believe that he ‘struggled’ or ‘wrestled’ with temptations.

"My only point is that he was as vulnerable to suggestions and impulses coming into his mind from his mortal nature, a nature inherited from his mortal mother, as any of us. He simply paid no attention to those suggestions, and he immediately put them out of his mind. The ability of the flesh to suggest, to entice, was the same for him as it is for us, but unlike the rest of us, he never responded to it. He didn’t ponder, deliberate, or entertain the sinful options even as theoretical possibilities—‘he gave no heed unto them’” (page 107).

Later on, he describes again the Savior’s ability to comfort and empathize with each of us, because of the Atonement.

“The Savior was no ivory-tower observer, no behind-the-lines captain. He was no spectator, no ‘high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15). . . .

"The Savior was a participant, a player, who not only understood our plight intellectually, but who felt our wounds because they became his wounds. He had firsthand, ‘in the trenches,’ experience. He knew ‘according to the flesh, how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12). He could comfort with empathy, not just sympathy, all ‘those that are cast down’ (2 Corinthians 7:6)’” (pg 208).

For more in-depth discussion on these ideas, including considerations on how the Atonement can encompass all time, read The Infinite Atonement.